An workshop for SIF in NIST.

From: Haeseong Jee (jacobjee@cme.nist.gov)
Date: Tue Oct 22 1996 - 01:15:01 EEST


STEP-based SIF (Solid Interchange Format) Standards Workshop
                   November 25, 1996
        National Institute of Standards and Technology
                Gaithersburg, MD 20899

Dear Colleague,

We would like to invite you to participate in a new initiative to
develop a standard format for exchanging next generation CAD-SFF
(Solid Freeform Fabrication) data. The new standard will be based
on STEP.

The one-day workshop is tentatively scheduled on November 25th at
NIST, Gaithersburg, MD, USA. The agenda will include several keynote
presentations, a panel discussion session for targeting specific R&D
needs, and other relevant topics. Appropriate workshop materials and
summaries of working sessions will be included in a bound volume and
will be distributed to participants.

In order to foster a communicative environment, the size of the
workshop will be limited and a response for reservation is
recommended until Nov. 1st to ensure participation. As industry
interaction is essential, participant will be actively solicited from
leading software companies in the area of computer-aided design and
manufacturing (CAD/CAM), rapid prototyping vendors, as well as the
industry end-users of CAD/CAM products. Please indicate whether you
want to be a panelist or just a participant.

There will be nominal registration fee $30 approximately which will
cover registration materials, meals (breakfast, lunch, coffee breaks).
Additional information regarding the venue of the workshop,
registration information, workshop schedule and accommodations will be
distributed by mail as it becomes available. If you require any
additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We are looking forward to a very worthwhile event.

Sincerely,

Dr. Haeseong J. jee, jacobjee@cme.nist.gov
Dr. Ram D. Sriram, Group Leader, sriram@cme.nist.gov
Dr. Mike Pratt, pratt@cme.nist.gov

EDT/ Manufacturing Systems Integration Div.
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Bldg. 220 Rm. A127
Gaithersburg, MD 20899

Tel) 1-301-975-3818
Fax) 1-301-258-9749
H-page) http://www.nist.gov/msid
=====================================================================

                         WHAT IS STEP?

Since 1984 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
has been working on the development of a new standard for the exchange
of product data between computer-based systems in use for design and
manufacturing. STEP is unofficial name for the evolving ISO standard
10303-Product Data Representation and Exchange. It will supersede
existing CAD data exchange formats such as IGES (a U.S. standard which
has been in use for more than ten years) and DXF (a proprietary format
developed by Autodesk mainly for exchange between PC-based CAD
systems). Whereas there earlier formats were developed primarily for
the exchange of pure geometric data between design systems, STEP is
intended to handle a much wider range of product-related data covering
the entire life-cycle of a product.

The development of SFF has been one of the largest efforts ever
undertaken by ISO. Several hundred people from many different
countries have been involved. The scale of the documentation
generated is so large that the standard is being released in parts.
Currently there are twelve of these, but many more are in preparation,
dealing with specific product ranges and different aspects of the
product life-cycle.

Current Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) is not one of the life-cycle
applications which has been dealt with by the STEP developers, but it
is believed that at least one of the currently released parts of STEP
could be relevant to SFF practitioners. The main pool of STEP
information is now provided by NIST information services (visit the
homepage of Manufacturing Systems Integration Division at NIST;
http://www.nist.gov/msid/).

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